The present disclosure relates to the field of autonomous vehicles and, specifically, to systems and methods for utilizing autonomous vehicles to provide assistance to distressed persons.
Currently, the technology supporting autonomous vehicles continues to improve. Improvements in digital camera technology, light detection and ranging (Lidar), and technologies have enabled vehicles to navigate roadways independent of drivers or with limited assistance from drivers. In some environments, such as factories, autonomous vehicles operate without any human intervention whatsoever.
While autonomous technology is primarily focused on control the movement of vehicles in a traditional sense, little emphasis has been placed on alternative applications that may be implemented on top of these autonomous systems. Indeed, application-level systems generally tend to reinforce existing uses of autonomous systems. For example, experimental uses of autonomous technology have been utilized to perform function such as returning vehicles to a known location after delivering a passenger or performing refueling of vehicles while not utilized by passengers.
These approaches however fail to utilize the wealth of hardware and processing power being implemented in autonomous vehicles. Thus, there currently exists a need in the state of the art of autonomous vehicles to provide additional services leveraging the existing hardware installed within such vehicles.